Keen to get Parish back into the side but he will have missed 4 weeks? Thats probably long enough to need a VFL comeback first.Myers has been disappointing and he has had a few matches to get into form so competition for spots should see him dropped, though his hoof could be valuable since he can kick goals from the square. Its not often we replace mids with kids, usually they need to do an apprenticeship either fwd or back, so im not sure about Mutch coming into the midfield unless he can hold down an additional position. The advantage guys like Myers, Stanton and Howlett have is that they can play all over so if someone goes down they can provide cover.I agree with the need to continually experiment but there's already a lot going on, lots of players still vetting familiar with their roles... Tippa, Stewart, Hooker, Green, Colyer, Watson, McKenna, McGrath, Fanta, Gleeson, TBell are all either finding form or addings strings to their bows. One more probably wouldnt make a difference I guess, plus it makes us unpredictable.I reckon we will see a few changes, because its an away game and a different ground and a different style of team we are playing, but also because it sees us commencing phase 2 of the season.

Stanton trained with defenders all preseason and did reasonably well in preseason games as a HBF'r. It's irrelevant it's his first year doing so.

At the time he came in for Kelly our main choices would have been Stanton or Jerrett for that role as both had been playing it in VFL also. Given we had both McKenna and McGrath as inexperienced players they went for the experience of Stanton.

Same goes for Howlett who'd been training with the fwds a lot through preseason, and slimmed down accordingly to ensure he could provide the pressure needed of smaller fwds who pinch hit in midfield as required. Green dropped out, in came Howlett (who was BOG in VFL)......

Fact is neither are seen as part of our proper midfield mix anymore. Hence they were training preseason in other areas.

Them being selected when they did was not a justification of picking them for sake of it. Selection committee clearly saw them as best filling the role needed by outgoing injured player / most likely to impact helping team win.

Until younger players are demanding being picked ahead of them for specific roles then that will keep happening.

so essentially what you're saying is, if kelly and parish go down again, our only replacements are stanton and howlett. ?

There's no one else that is even remotely capable of filling any role in the starting 22 and moving players around, it's either them or nothing.

God i hope those 2 plus myers improve out of sight very quickly if we have no depth and no players capable of filling a role beyond those 3.

It's pointless talking about it on my behalf, I know those 3 players will be picked above and beyond anyone else and it's got little to do with supposed form in the vfl. talking about it isn't going to stop it happening, so i'm just gonna pray like a mother ■■■■■■ we have as close to our best starting 22 every week, esp come finals, cos there's no way in hell we win a final with 2 or more of them in the side.

Yes for specific roles as required for the team experienced depth players we have on our list who are getting named in the VFL bests weekly will likely be brought in.

Unless their name is Bird

On team balance. Been only one opportunity IMO that Bird could have come in for a 'specific role'.

That was the Blues game. They went for Hocking instead which in hindsight was a mistake. And he potentially could have come in for Crows game or Melb game as cover for Watson who shouldn't have played either.

It's pretty much only Watson he'd be in line to come in for if he missed IMO as the key at the coal face inside mid. But even if Watson missed they'd be more likely to pick Langford now, as covers ground better and more damaging with disposal etc.

Bobcat is the ultimate team player and does a lot of things for others like shepherding that don't accumulate numbers in his favour. His kicking at this stage may NOT be up to scratch the way some would like but he is prepared to put his body on the line almost every time.

The team need to come to play this week and lay it on the line. If we play like we did against Port we will match them. This may sound crazy but what about Ambrose, if he is fit, on Franklin. To taper his game and annoy him.